Metadata is data "about" a document, and it's embedded in almost all computer files automatically. The best way to understand metadata is to consider some concrete examples for different types of files, such as emails and Microsoft Office (i.e, Word, Excel, Powerpoint) documents.
NOTE: To view a video tutorial on viewing and filtering metadata in Casefleet, click here.
Email Metadata
Email metadata is the godfather of all metadata when it comes to usefulness and importance. In fact, we don't usually consider this type of metadata to be metadata at all because it is so prominent:
The list of addresses the email was addressed to;
The date and time the email was sent;
The email subject line;
The address that sent the email; and
The CC and BCC addresses
MS Office Documents
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint sometimes include helpful metadata, such as:
The date and time the file was last printed; and
The total editing time (in minutes).
"Universal" Metadata
Some metadata is shared in common between almost all file types, which is why we put the word "universal" in quotes. The following metadata fields are available in most documents you will upload to Casefleet:
The name of the person who created the file;
The date and time the file was created;
The name of the person who last changed the file;
The date and time the file was last changed;
The specific content type of file; and
The title of the file.
Adding Metadata Fields on the Sources Tab
Metadata fields can be viewed on the Sources tab in Casefleet with the column chooser. Simply click the column chooser button:
When you've clicked the button, click the text to show hidden columns and check the fields that you want to add to the page:
Once you've added the columns you want to view, you may want to create a Saved View so that you can easily recall these columns the next time you visit the page. (Learn how in our article on Saved Views.)
NOTE: In addition to viewing various metadata fields on the sources page, you can also view the raw metadata for a source on the home page for the source. To visit the home page, simply click on the row for the source on the Sources tab.
Filtering Sources by Metadata Attributes
Metadata is especially useful for filtering sources. Here are a few use cases that may be helpful to you:
Viewing all emails sent within a certain range of dates;
Viewing all MS Word documents;
Viewing all emails sent from a certain email address; and
Viewing all emails containing a certain keyword in the subject line.
You can easily create filters like these using the filter builder on the sources page. To get started, click the filter builder button (to the left of the column chooser button), and select a metadata field in the leftmost column:
Fields available for filtering include Email Sent Date, Email Subject, Email To, and Email CC. When you add a filter that you want to reuse or share with your team, we recommend saving it as part of a Saved View.